Sinn Féin Seanad leader, Senator David Cullinane, is supporting a recall of the Seanad in order to discuss the very serious consequences arising from the failure of Irish Water to pass the Eurostat test

Senator Cullinane said: “Sinn Féin and other members of the Opposition are calling for a recall of the Seanad on foot of the Eurostat test which determined that Irish Water will not be able to go off balance sheet.

“The gravity of this ruling cannot be downplayed – it has serious consequences for government water strategy and for Irish tax payers.

“Sinn Féin has always been critical of the government’s rationale for the setting up of Irish Water. It is a service we are already paying for. Irish Water have given us little more than a masterclass in mismanagement where precious millions are being spent and squandered with nothing to show for it.

“We pointed out last year that Irish Water could not be kept off the state’s balance sheet for numerous reasons, with the ‘conservation grant’ being nothing but a ruse to convince Eurostat that Irish Water was a viable commercial enterprise. Irish Water was not operational long enough to go off balance sheet either according to Eurostat.

“What is more, the figures are simply not adding up, especially with the huge levels of non-compliance by Irish people. We are in a situation where the level of non-payment means that the cost of the water conservation grant will actually exceed money returned by the payment of domestic water charges.

“This means that the government will have to either increase water charges or scrap the conservation grant if they wish to fulfil the plans they set out. This would leave the Irish people at a financial loss either way.

“It is an embarrassing set-back and has real consequences for the funding of our water services. However it is ultimately the Irish people who will carry these costs. Government Ministers are speaking from both sides of their mouth and should scrap these water charges once and for all.”

Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty has outlined Sinn Féin’s opposition to water charges at a speech to the MacGill Summer School this evening.

Full text of Deputy Doherty’s speech follows:

Speech on Water Charges – MacGill Summer School

Introduction of Household Water Charges

The introduction of household water charges was conceived by the previous Fianna Fáil/Green government in their Four Year Recovery Plan. They then formalised this disastrous policy with the EU/IMF/ECB Troika as part of the financial bailout in December 2010. They said at the time that they got “the best deal”. I strongly disagree.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Finance, Pearse Doherty.

The Labour party – at that time anyway – also disagreed that it was the best deal possible and they went onto fight the 2011 General election seeking a mandate to renegotiate the bailout programme.

We know now that the Labour party acquiesced and as a result, are relentlessly forcing ordinary working citizens and families across this State, who cannot afford to pay another stealth tax – to do just that.

It is shameful and it is totally unnecessary.

The Irish citizens who placed their faith and trust in both Eamon Gilmore and Joan Burton in 2011 to defend them, their families and communities the length and breadth of this state, have been trampled over and discarded.

They have rammed through yet another stealth tax on the people, in order to repay a banking debt that is not theirs. But people are resisting as we see from huge numbers who have refused to pay and I’m glad to count myself as one of those.

To those that have paid and those that have refused to pay Sinn Féin’s message is clear, if in Government, Sinn Fein will abolish household water charges. To those that have refused to pay or are considering not paying my commitment to you is if Sinn Féin forms part of the next government we will not pursue any citizen or household who has not paid. We will repeal the draconian legislation forced through the Oireachtas by the Fine Gael/Labour majority put this saga in the dustbin of history where it belongs.

And, let me assure you all, that unlike these other parties we do not make promises that we will not keep.

The objectors to Uisce Éireann have been of all ages and political colour.

Sinn Féin Alternative

I believe that the political choices a government makes are defined by its view of society, its ambition, its ideological anchor and the interests that it seeks to represent.

We need a left-republican Government with core values which reflect Irish society.

Sinn Féin is deeply committed to the core values of peace, social equality, economic prosperity and Irish unity. These are the key planks where we are concentrating our effort and attention.

We need to rebuild the economy on the basis of a progressive, fair and a sustainable social and economic model. It does not exist under this Labour/Fine Gael government.

Their approach has been to inflict a policy of failed austerity economics at a huge cost to society and the social fabric of Ireland.

Next year as we honour those who fought in the cause of Irish freedom during Easter 1916 and reflect on the vision set out in the Proclamation – we must wake up to the fact that Ireland is now at a cross-roads.

We are at a critical juncture on how we decide the future society and the type of Ireland we want to fight for now – 100 years later in 2016.

This means new economic thinking, new ideas and an honest and coherent political approach, a real break from the past, from the same old, same old that what we are getting now.

It means organised political leadership to take us forward with a plan to confront the challenges and solve the problems as a new democratic Government.

I believe that political leadership is Sinn Féin.

The Future Governance, Delivery and Funding of Water Services

Providing reliable high quality public services and infrastructure including water and sewerage services – which are economically sustainable – is a major challenge which does need addressed.

However, we must get it right and not simply get it done.

Sinn Féin has first-hand experience and a strong record of delivering exactly this in the north.

In May 2007 when the power-sharing institutions at Stormont were restored, Sinn Féin committed to reverse the plans of British direct rule Ministers to introduce household water charges because taxpayers were already paying for these services, as we are here in this State through general taxation.

Sinn Féin also ruled out any future privatisation of these critical public services by ensuring that the Executive, under the Department for Regional Development, remained the sole shareholder of the newly established utility company, NI Water.

This was a firm pre-election commitment and we delivered it.

Today, according to the Utility Regulator in the north, households save an average of €490 annually as a result of our decision.

At the same time between 2007-11 over £1billion sterling was invested under Sinn Féin in a major upgrade of the North’s water and sewerage infrastructure benefiting almost one million households and businesses. This has improved drinking water quality, protected the environment and supported the local economy.

The Fine Gael/Labour government knows what was achieved in the north under Sinn Féin.

However, despite seeing how our approach worked to deliver efficient water and sewerage services, Fine Gael and Labour and Fianna Fáil have chosen to ignore it, and impose an unfair household water charge on families in this State through the toxic utility – Irish Water.

So, how would Sinn Féin do it differently?

It is our position that the purpose of a public water company should be to provide clean and plentiful water supplies to businesses and households, along with ancillary services such as waste removal, protection against flooding and other important functions.

Our water and sewerage system affects the daily operations of businesses, public services and the well-being of households, so it is imperative that this key public asset is organised as efficiently and productively as possible – since it is central to a modern economy.

Fine Gael and Labour as already mentioned have taken an approach to simply place the burden on working families by imposing a policy of relentless austerity, cutting services and investment. They have a conservative mind-set that believes that the state should not intervene in the economy, except to provide subsidies to the private sector and bailouts in periods of economic crisis.

Therefore, in line with the EU/ECB/IMF and the bailout programme agreed in 2010 when household water charges were made concrete, theirs is a completely one-sided view of public utilities.

Where there are both revenues and outlays – they see only the latter.

They only see liabilities not assets.

They only see gross debt not economic function.

Some people don’t grasp that the economy should serve the people, not the other way around.

Inevitably this narrow limited economic thinking leads to blunders, which they then seek to address by loading more costs or charges onto hard-pressed citizens and households.

The progressive alternative that I am advocating is to see public water services as a vital part of a modern economy, with large potential benefits from investment in running efficient services.

The service properly belongs in the public sector as a highly regulated public service accountable to the Oireachtas and therefore the citizens – not half in and half out.

Much of the water infrastructure has been sacrificed for other more politically popular schemes.

Irish Water Investment

Our water services suffer from long-term under-investment.

This is responsible for the extremely poor quality of water to many households and its unreliability, as well as repeated failures to invest in flood prevention which have led to a number of damaging and costly crises.

Like much else, the chaos of Irish Water relates to a sustained period of underinvestment, with very poor infrastructure spending largely confined to the cities and insufficient investment since, including the North-West and in particular county Donegal.

There was a period, through the various National Development Plans of the 1990s and beyond where large-scale investment in water services did occur, with notable improvement in service and quality through modernisation.

However, this has stagnated under the current Governments austerity policy which has targeted public investment in key services for cuts.

In the event, the proposed capital expenditure plan for 2014-2016 was €1.77bn . The borrowing component of that is guaranteed by the State. It is very difficult to see how this could be otherwise, given the parlous state of Irish Water’s finances and uncertainty surrounding its funding model. In terms of future funding, there is no prospect whatsoever of a company like Irish Water being able to borrow at interest rates below those of the government. It would only be able to lower its interest rate somewhat towards government levels through the operation of a State guarantee (either implicit or explicit, which would itself impact on the cost of borrowing). The State cannot avoid these costs, in one way or another.

Similar considerations apply to the ownership structure of Irish Water. Just as private borrowing would be more expensive and inefficient than government borrowing, so too would a model based on private equity ownership in whole or in part. That would require the payment of dividends to shareholders, which would be a loss to the Exchequer from an asset created by the public sector. Those dividends would have to be in line with market rates. In order to fund either private debt interest levels or private shareholder payments charges to business and households would have to increase further, or the subsidy from the public sector would have to increase to fund it.

In order to achieve efficiency in investment and lower costs, the provision of water services should remain entirely in public sector hands.

The public impact of public investment

If we take the €1.77bn sum as a baseline for investment on a rolling basis we can assess the impact of that investment.

An investment sum of €1.77bn will yield increased output in the rest of the economy of €2.6bn.

In addition it will yield €600m in increased employee compensation and €200m in additional taxes on production.

Each of these will also directly and indirectly impact on government finances.

The government has been desperate to keep it ‘off balance-sheet’ as this will impact the metrics used under the Excessive Deficit Procedure and the Medium Term Budgetary Objectives under the Stability and Growth Pact.

But this is proving difficult under the 50% revenues rule, where half of more of the operating costs must be met by commercial revenues.

Such is the mess the government has produced, it has also now created an entity whose ability to borrow at all (even expensively) is severely compromised because of reliance on the capped household charge.

The government has effectively folded Irish Water into Ervia in the hope of disguising this problem and the related problem of now useless meters and other issues.

The Government used its usual scare tactics against those of us who advocate abolishing water charges. They said it would leave an €800 million hole in our budget and deficit targets couldn’t be reached.

However their bluff has been called, as a result of Eurostat not yet ruling on whether Irish water should be “on book” or “off book”. In April of this year the government’s’ own Stability Programme Update included Irish Water as being “on book”. That is the current situation. And even with Irish water “on book” Minister Noonan said the government had between €1.2 and €1.5bn of fiscal space and still meet all our deficit targets.

What does that mean?

It means that the only cost to scrapping household Water charges is the €271m expected in domestic Water Charges.

There would be savings to offset this cost. The €130m earmarked for the so called Water Conservation Grant would be redundant.

Likewise the €6million administration costs of this Grant would be saved.

Much of the approximately €20m in billing costs associated with Irish Water would be saved too.

So we see how the abolition of water charges is more than affordable well below €130 million. And this is based on full payment by household which is not happening and will not happen. As payment levels stutter at below 50% it is conceivable that even in simple budgetary terms abolishing water charges is achievable and even prudent.

Sinn Féin in Government

Sinn Féin believes that Ervia is in any event the wrong vehicle for the substantial investment required, simply being too small to shoulder any necessary support to Irish Water.

The wrong vehicle for the purpose.

Ervia’s profits in the most recent year were just €380m on an EBITDA basis*. By contrast, depending on which measure, profits, assets, net borrowing ESB is between 3 and 4 times the size of Ervia and would arguably be in a better position to support a large-scale government investment programme.

Arguably, ESB is in fact a much more attractive and viable host for a public water services company.

However, that debate is for another day.

What is required is a public water utility that is not Irish Water.

We need a public sector water service which is directly accountable to the Minister and both should be accountable to the Houses of the Oireachtas.

A water service that is managed by a publicly appointed board which is fairly balanced to represent the economic, environmental and societal and community interests which serve both the public service and the public interest – including the workforce.

A stop put to metering and priority given to fixing the massive leakage problems and interruption to supply across the state which I understand average 49%.

Funding should be generated through mixed income of which the majority is through public subsidy from the General exchequer, in addition to non-domestic charges, commercial borrowing.

There should be no duplication of services being delivered by any public water service and Local authorities but service agreements should exist because local knowledge and experience cannot be underestimated.

For an island the size of Ireland it does not make economic sense to have two public water systems. The service north and south should be connected and the services operated and costs shared on an All-Ireland basis.

Conclusion

A government with the political will can provide reliable high quality water and sewerage services – which are economically sustainable.

The starting point for Sinn Féin will be the dismantling of Irish Water and it’s replacement by a new model of governance, funding and delivery within full public ownership and democratic control and accountability.

We will establish an independent Commission on Water Services to examine the best public ownership model.

We will seek to legislate for any proposal and through a constitutional referendum seek the people’s endorsement of any proposals and keep water services in full public ownership now and for the future.

The annual commemoration of General Liam Lynch took place on Sunday 19th near the spot where he was gunned down in 1923, and beside the spectacular monument erected in his memory in 1935. It was addressed by Cllr Séamie Morris and by historian Ruan O’Donnell.

Speaking after the event Cllr Morris said, “whereas General Liam Lynch was a much respected Irish Republican, the spectacular monument at Goatenbridge shows the determination of Tipperary Republicans to put a monument at the spot where he was shot. It is an example of their resilience even when completing a difficult task.”

2015-07-19: Cllr Séamie Morris reads the words of Éamon de Valera following the killing of General Liam Lynch.

“Local Republicans brought the stone for the monument on donkeys, along rough tracks and across difficult terrain. Everything was brought up in that slow laborious manner. The monument was unveiled in 1935, and even on the day of the unveiling the torrential rain did not stop the ceremony being attended by a crowd which one estimate put at 15,000.”

“Just as the courage of men such as Lynch is acknowledged, the sheer grit and determination of those Republicans must be respected. Today the journey here in a 4-wheel drive car is difficult. How much harder it must have been on foot, carrying tools, 80 years ago in 1935. I am honoured to have been one of the people invited to partake in this annual commemoration.”

“Ruan O’Donnell was the main speaker today and while he is a fascinating speaker, it was disturbing to hear him reference the ongoing threat to remove history from our school curriculum, to downgrade it in the new Junior Cert. For the powers that be, history is an inconvenience.”

“Ruan expressed his concern that we have only about a decade to see the historical view of General Lynch corrected. General Lynch’s contribution to our history is an annoyance to the establishment. As we continue to sell our soul to the IMF and ECB, it’s up to us to ensure he isn’t written out of the story of Tipperary Republicanism.”

“It is up to the people of Tipperary to send a message to those that have sold out the ideals of 1916, and who have sold out the courage of men like Liam Lynch.”

“Tipperary must vote for a strong Republican voice, the voice of Séamus Morris, who will put the people of Tipperary first in the battle to overcome the austerity that has devastated so many families across Tipperary. A fair recovery is possible under Sinn Féin.”